KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dayton Moore joked that he's never seen March in Kansas City.
"It's beautiful," Moore, the Kansas City Royals' general manager, said Tuesday during a videoconference. "The weather is a little inconsistent."
Moore usually spends March in Surprise, Arizona, where the at Royals conduct Spring Training, but with all team activity suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Moore has been in Kansas City and mostly at home.
"I've enjoyed the opportunity to spend more time with our family," Moore said.
As far as his baseball family goes, he stays in regular contact with them, too. Royals players are trying to stay in baseball shape until they get the go-ahead to play ball.
"We're just operating at the direction of Commissioner (Rob) Manfred and the owners about when they think the time is right," Moore said.
A number of ideas have been floated for baseball resuming in creative ways — all teams in Arizona, no fans in home stadiums, players sitting apart from each other in the stands, no home plate umpires.
Moore doesn't know nor have a preference as to the manner in which baseball resumes, but he's optimistic.
"I think we're getting closer," he said. "I'm more hopeful today than I was yesterday, and I was pretty hopeful yesterday."
Moore said he hasn't even entertained the idea of zero baseball being played in Kansas City this summer.
"Those are just ideas that everybody's discussing," he said, "and it's good brainstorm. It's good to think out loud, but it's hard to imagine not playing baseball in front of our fans in Kansas City."
To that end, Moore said he looks forward to more than just the Royals returning to the field.
"There's no doubt in my mind that the people of the Midwest, the citizens of the Midwest, are going to come back and support baseball," he said. "We're very resilient people."
